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'Ghost Factories' series wins Barlett & Steele Award

An ongoing USA TODAY investigation of hundreds of forgotten lead factories and the health hazards they left behind has won a national award for investigative business journalism. "Ghost Factories: Poison in

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'Ghost Factories' series wins Barlett & Steele Award

The Silver Award for Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Journalism, run by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism.(Photo: Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism)

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An USA TODAY investigation of hundreds of forgotten lead factories and the health hazards they left behind has won a national award for investigative business journalism.

"Ghost Factories: Poison in the Ground" received the Silver Award in the 2012 Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Journalism, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism announced Thursday morning. The center is based at Arizona State University.

The New York Times received the Gold Award for an investigation that revealed Wal-Mart had received evidence that the company's Mexican executives used systematic bribery payments to obtain zoning and construction permits. The Bronze Award was given to a joint project by reporters for The Charlotte Observer and The (Raleigh) News & Observer for an investigation of non-profit hospitals called "Prognosis: Profits."

The awards are named for two-time Pulitzer Prize winning reporters Don Barlett and Jim Steele and recognize outstanding print and online investigative business journalism.

They will be presented at a ceremony in January in Phoenix.

The "Ghost Factories" series has revealed that federal and state environmental agencies were warned more than a decade ago that soil in hundreds of neighborhoods may be contaminated with dangerous levels of lead from factories that operated in the 1930s to 1960s, but had since closed and been forgotten with the passage of time. Yet officials did little to investigate many of the sites or warn people living nearby of the dangers to their children from playing in the dirt and putting dusty hands or toys in their mouths, the investigation found.

Ingesting even tiny amounts of lead can cause lost intelligence, ADHD and other health problems, studies show. Soil testing by the newspaper found dangerous levels of lead in neighborhoods around several of the sites.

The series, published in April, has resulted in the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators taking actions around dozens of old factory sites nationwide, including testing soil and cleaning up dangerously contaminated yards of nearby homes. Most recently, the Oregon Department of Environmental Protection told residents of a Portland neighborhood Wednesday night that tests at a home built atop a former factory site featured in the USA TODAY series show hazardous levels of lead and arsenic. The DEQ's proposed cleanup plan calls for removing 20 tons of the most contaminated soil and sealing other parts of the property with a protective barrier. The state's tests have found dangerous lead levels at three other nearby homes that likely will require additional cleanups and the EPA will be investigating additional homes in the vicinity, said Scott Manzano, a DEQ project manager.

The series was reported by Alison Young, Peter Eisler and a team of USA TODAY database, design, digital and visual experts. It is available at ghostfactories.usatoday.com, including an online interactive that gives users detailed findings about more than 230 factory sites, including providing historical maps documenting the factories in operation and interactive maps allowing users to examine more than 1,000 soil samples performed by the newspaper in 21 neighborhoods across the country. The interactive includes extensive use of videos to further enhance the text stories and graphics. Thousands of pages of government documents about the old factories -- obtained by reporters in response to more than 140 open record requests – are posted in the interactive to empower readers to go deeper about sites of greatest interest to them.

The series' results were noted by the Barlett & Steele Awards judges: "As a result of their efforts, government officials in 14 states have reopened flawed investigations, tested soil or taken other action to clean up contaminated property," said the judges.

Last month, the Associated Press Media Editors awarded "Ghost Factories" its Digital Storytelling and Reporting award for large newspapers. That prize honors journalism that effectively uses the digital medium and its ability to engage users "in compelling new ways."